Friday April 19 - Randy and I brought all of the equipment over to my house in a single trip. It took 2.5 hours to load both vehicles. Once here we unloaded his vehicle into the garage. I inspected the aquarium to make sure it was not damaged in transit, all was in order. He departed while I unloaded a few things from my car.

Saturday April 20 - I cleaned the aquarium and stand. They had been in Randy's basement and were covered in grunge. I was careful not to use any chemicals in the tank itself, but the stand was another matter. I scrubbed and rinsed and scrubbed some more. I prepared the space in the office were the tank was going to go. Staci and I also decided to paint the walls before we brought the tank into the room since we had wanted to do this anyway.

Sunday April 21 - My dad and I moved the aquarium into the office. Before setting it into the stand we affixed the connectors into the holes in the tank and tightened. Once this was done we lifted the tank into the stand (who ever thought glass could be so heavy). With the tank in the stand I added enough water to cover the water return from the sump and let it sit overnight to test the seal.

Monday April 22 - After confirming that there was not any leakage around the seal I began work on the sump tank. Randy had cracked his old 30 gallon sump when moving some time ago. Fortunately I had a 30 gallon aquarium which I used to keep my snake in. I thoroughly washed the tank and let it dry. While it was drying I began removing the Plexiglas from the old sump with a razor knife. Once removed I cleaned off as much of the old silicone as I could and prepared to silicone the pieces into the new sump. After a trip to Home Depot I began the painstakingly slow process of placing and affixing the Plexiglas in the new sump. After several hours of work it was all complete. I left it to dry overnight.

Tuesday April 23 - After re-reading the Silicone tube and finding out it was NOT intended for Aquariums (Ammonia based instead of Vinegar) I made a trip to Aquarium Adventure to buy new silicone, cursing the Home Depot dude who told me this stuff was OK for aquarium use all the way. That is the last time I trust someone at Home Depot. Instead of removing all of the old silicone I decided it would be sufficient to cover the old silicone with the new, in effect sealing it in. Again waited 24 hours for it to dry.

Wednesday April 24 - Rinsed out the sump and made sure all the sections were well sealed. Moved the sump into position in the stand. Plumbed the pump into place and added some water to the sump to test the pump. Due to the fact I did not have a hole cut in my sump (Randy had a through glass fitting because his pump was not submersible) the pump was not able to draw the water into the pipe high enough to prime itself (Uggghh). I went online and ordered a Mag Drive #7 (700GPH) pump and went back to Sears Hardware to get some new PVC fittings. I picked a compression fitting so it would be easier to separate the overflow pipe from the drip tray for cleaning, as well as various elbows and a 1" to 3/4" threaded reducer. When I ordered the pump, I also ordered the ICECAP 660 ballast since both of the ballast's Randy had were very corroded and unsafe to use.

Thursday April 25 - The pump arrived in the afternoon. When I got home I started assembling the system. I was very pleased with how clean it was setup as compared to the previous configuration. The Mag Drive is fully submersible and therefore made it possible to run the tub straight up from within the sump itself. This was a better design because if there was a leak it would flow back down the tube into the sump instead of onto the stand bottom. We then began filling the tank, I found it easiest to run the hose in through the window since there weren't going to be any fish in it for a while the chlorine and temperature would not be a problem at this time. Once filled I let it circulate for a day to make sure the plumbing was sound. I also added a 200 watt heater to bring the temperature up, as well as two thermometers on opposing corners of the tank glass.

Friday April 26 - Continued to let the system circulate with fresh water. Began setting up the protein skimmer. Realized I needed a new power head to power this. Ordered it from an online dealer, who I later found out was out of stock and going out of business. He recommended another Marine Aquarium store (which I had in fact already found since they had the second best price) Premium Aquatics. I also began setting up the lights and wired the end caps. I tested the light setup. The first three tries were unsuccessful. After changing one of the bulbs (they were all used, some were bad) I was able to get the lights to work. I wired a double end cap and a single for a total of three Triton 40 watt tubes (The tubes will likely change, but they worked well for testing). I also added the bio-blocks to the overflow and the sump system as well as  added a bunch of floss to the overflow to catch particles before they entered the sump (the floss is easy to remove and rinse).

Saturday April 27 - Wow, things are really starting to shape up. With the lights on the tank is very bright, especially without any substrate. I dumped in the two new bags of substrate material I had bought (15 Lbs Florida Crushed Coral and 15Lbs Aruba Substrate material), as well as a bunch of the old material I had received with the tank. Once the substrate was in the tank I left it alone for a couple hours to let the water clear. After three hours it was still quite cloudy, but I decided to start adding the coralline rock anyway. It floated initially so I left it alone till had become mostly waterlogged (1 hour). Once it was all sitting on the bottom I arranged it around the water return from the sump to mask the PVC tubing. I then returned to Sear to get some sticky backed Ratcheting adjustable Kwik Clips in three different sizes to organize wiring and tubing. While waiting on the sediment to settle I began organizing the exterior of the tank. I also placed the lid on the tank to keep the light from bathing the room in it's bright glow. The lid is coated on the inside in pure white to reflect the light back towards the tank. The tank temperature has now reached 80 degrees F. I added a 100 watt heater in case the 200 watt failed so the tank would not become to cold, I may add a second 100 watt before I add fish, I haven't decided yet. I thought I would see if a single 100 watt could sustain the temp overnight by itself first since it is really just a backup. The tank is really starting to look good, although I still have more coral materials to add once the waters clears up.

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